


Engage at Will

by lextenou



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: BAMF Natasha Romanov, F/F, Hints of Stucky, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2019-01-10 09:28:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12296286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lextenou/pseuds/lextenou
Summary: Natasha Romanoff and Maria Hill work well together. Nothing more is there to be seen.Anyone who says otherwise is lying.





	Engage at Will

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flipflop_diva](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flipflop_diva/gifts).



> First in a possible series depending on further ideas as they come.

"Is there any particular reason you're not taking out your aggression on the person who caused this frustration?"

Maria Hill, Deputy Director of SHIELD, halted the swing of the heavy bag with her taped and bruised hands. She exhaled slowly, centering herself and allowing the tension to flow from her before turning her head and meeting the green eyes that twinkled at her from the shadows. Her eyes narrowed as she took in the form of the intruder that had broken her rhythm.

"Natasha."

Remaining still, Natasha Romanoff, the infamous Black Widow, lounged against the doorframe of the gym. Her legs were crossed at the ankle, one hand perched negligently on her hip and a smirk firmly in place. Maria's fists clenched and released, her eyes tracing over the displayed form that appeared deceptively relaxed before she released her breath and spoke in quiet, measured tones.

"We're to induct the latest batch coming in."

A twitch of muscle in her shoulder was the only indication that Natasha had heard the pronouncement.

"Mmm."

"No one else is available." Natasha tilted her head to the side, one eyebrow raising. Her lips parted and Maria continued before she could utter whatever smart rejoinder she planned. "Rogers and Barnes are unavailable. And even if he wasn't, between the two of you, I'd rather have you let loose on fresh meat than Mister Still Recovering From HYDRA."

Natasha snapped her jaw shut, the muscle in her cheek twitching. She gave a short nod and stepped forward, gesturing to the bag. Maria shifted, her taped hands unfurling to hold the bag steady.

Natasha spun on the ball of one foot, the other cocked up to the hip before it swung out, the flat of the top of her foot catching the bag fully. Had Maria been standing fully behind the bag - as she had done, precisely once - she would have gone flying into the bulkhead.

That set of bruised ribs had hurt.

As it was, she allowed the bag to swing freely for a moment before catching it and halting its motion.

"Better, Romanoff?"

A wicked grin shot her way. "Can we have them swarm?"

Maria let out a short bark of laughter at the thought of an entire class of green recruits trying to take down the Black Widow. "Can you promise not to maim anyone else permanently?"

Natasha huffed. "That was one time and Stark had it coming." Maria waved a hand and set to unwrapping her hands. The top layers released easily, uncoiling from her fingers in ribbons of sweat and dirt stained tape. The last layers discolored further until the final one, which bore the unmistakable yellow and rust stained ringlet of blood over one knuckle.

Apparently, that had been the split she'd felt while she was hitting the bag.

She deposited the tape in the trash and stood upright, her head turning to glance at Natasha from the corner of her vision.

"Ten hundred hours. Tomorrow. Don't make me have to find you."

Maria strode from the gym, Natasha's calmly observant gaze boring right between her shoulder blades.

\---

There were many things in this world that frustrated Maria Hill. So too, a great many that relieved her stress. However, none of them could match the casual atmosphere so easily captured when the Avengers embraced her into their ranks as one of their own. It was always a toss up as to which extreme would be met at any given moment.

Tonight was movie night. Last night had been game night. Tony's insistence on theme nights weren't the worst thing to put up with - his destroyed labs came to mind as a greater annoyance - but somehow, she had never figured the man to have a weakness for romantic comedies.

This was the third insipid and forgettable movie they'd seen in as many weeks. She was starting to miss the narrative majesty of the Billy Jack movies she'd watched as a kid.

A brief glance through her peripheral vision reassured her that Natasha hadn't moved from her spot at the end of the couch. One hand propped up her head and her attention appeared riveted to the screen. She could never tell with certainty, as Natasha was never the easiest person to read, but Maria was fairly confident that whatever was going on in the woman's head had nothing to do with whether the insipid couple on screen would or would not end up happy together in some simulacrum of normalcy.

A nudge at her knee had her glancing down at Steve with a raised eyebrow. He turned his head slightly, addressing her quietly.

"Who'd you pick for tomorrow's new recruits?"

Maria shifted and glanced over at Natasha, who was still staring ahead at the screen. Her focused attention was an obvious ploy - she was focused on Maria's conversation with Steve.

"Romanoff and I will be handling it."

Steve let out a low chuckle, his shoulder nudging again at Maria's knee. "Can Bucky and I come play?"

Natasha turned her head at that, her gaze zeroing in on the first Avenger. "Your type of play isn't appropriate for initiation until at least the second week."

He snorted, shifted and rose to his knees, shooting her a stern look over his shoulder. His hand came down on Bucky's thigh, helping him keep his balance. Bucky grinned over at Natasha.

One booted foot shot out, firmly planting against Steve's backside, the firm weight of Natasha's calf coming to rest warmly on Maria's thigh. Her jaw clenched. Steve fell forward on his hands, his body straddled over Bucky's extended legs. His head snapped around to glare playfully at his teammate.

"If you want to play with a cyborg, play with a cyborg. I don't care. Just don't whine about it." Natasha gestured with idle boredom at the screen. "We're already watching this, I don't need to see you two making eyes at each other."

Steve shot her another glare and stood, glancing down at Bucky with a raised eyebrow. Bucky shrugged and rose, following Steve out of the room.

"Shhh! You're going to miss the best part!" Tony's hissed warning came with a wild gesture toward the screen, where the two leads were staring angstily at each other.

Again.

Maria sighed and leaned back further into the couch, her hand coming up to rest against the warm bulk of Natasha's leg that remained firmly across her lap.

She resolutely ignored the warmth that spread through her chest.

\---

By the time 0900 hours rolled around, Maria had been up for half a watch. Her morning PT had gone off without a hitch, and she trusted in her people to shuffle the recruits through the initial onboarding that would allow her to take over their more advanced training. At the least, she could assess their abilities and see if their recruitment process required retooling.

She finished signing off on some requisitions and rejecting others with notes - no, Banner, that much plutonium was not required for investigation into Sigma-Four - before opening the recruit files and familiarizing herself with their histories and abilities. She raised her head and stared at the doorway for a moment before rising, the clock ticking over to 0955 as she stalked out of her office.

She stood in the gym at rest, her hands clasped behind her back, waiting with a studied expression of mild indifference. At precisely 0959, Natasha slipped into the room, standing to one side of the door and waiting quietly. The last of the recruits filtered in, their soft murmuring ebbing as they gathered in a clump in the middle of the room.

"I am Deputy Director Hill. You have been selected to attempt to earn the right to join SHIELD. Over the coming weeks, you will be tested and pushed to the utmost of your capabilities. If you are not able to meet our requirements, you will be assigned to a suitable location. In the event that you are able to meet other requirements, you will be reassigned to a training course that matches your capabilities." Maria met Natasha's gaze directly. A raised eyebrow was her answer. "Your first task, as a group - take down the Black Widow."

Natasha smirked, relaxed against the back wall.

Maria tilted her head. "Proceed."

Without a word, three of the recruits stepped forward, their feet shuffling forward on the thick rubberized mats. Natasha remained standing next to the now closed door, her posture relaxed. Two of the recruits swung wide, to flank on either side. The third remained focused head on, and they moved forward with an ease that betrayed their previous missions together.

A hint of what might have been a smile ghosted across Maria's lips with alarming rapidity.

The one to Natasha's right lunged first, reaching an arm across her shoulders. The one to her left moved a scant half-second behind, rearing a fist back to slam it into the back of Natasha's head. The one that had been facing her head on abruptly darted forward and toward her right, a firm fist pulling back and aiming to her unprotected lower abdomen.

At least, that was how they had planned their impromptu attack.

In truth, what happened was that Natasha allowed the one to her right to reach just past her shoulder before she grasped the presented wrist. A sharp tug sent the assailant sailing toward the one approaching from the opposite direction, and she used the momentum to spin out of the way. As she cleared the tangled mess of limbs, one of her feet hooked around the flung assailant's ankle and kicked it up.

The booted foot of the falling recruit that Natasha had propelled landed with unerring accuracy where it had been intended - on the bridge of the nose of the assailant that had been intended to crash into her from the front.

She stood just in front of door for the barest moment before she twirled through a gaping cluster of recruits, their fists and feet hardly able to scramble fast enough to fend off her disabling blows before she delivered them.

Maria glanced to the clock, noting that Natasha now stood before approximately half of the recruits, reduced to either groaning or being temporarily knocked out. The audible thunk of the skulls of the two overdeveloped meatheads together had been particularly gratifying, but still.

Seven seconds.

"I'd like to get back to my coffee before it gets cold, Agent Romanoff." Natasha turned her head slightly, the muscle of her back tensing briefly before releasing. "It's already bad enough I'm drinking something barely better than I had in the field after a three day hump, it might as well be hot." Maria shifted her foot back as Natasha's next victim crumpled right where her boot had been a heartbeat before.

The whirling dervish of Natasha's moves during Maria's bored speech had served to dispatch the rest of the recruits into groaning piles of humanity. The use of one's hand against another's incoming punch had been quite rewarding. The particular recruit Natasha had chosen for that defensive move was one of the more intellectually inclined recruits, most likely one that would end up in the labs. Natasha had used the recruit as an extension of herself, using the recruit's limp hands and barely controlled legs to dispatch a good number of the others before she'd tapped the recruit serving as her unwilling out of commission with a quick jab to the neck.

Natasha stepped away from the groaning mass of bodies, her head tilted to the side as she looked at Maria. A single eyebrow raised, and Maria inclined her head before sweeping her gaze across the slowly recovering recruits.

"This has been your first lesson. You are to immediately report to your training officers as listed in your packets. Agent Romanoff and I will be providing feedback on your performances." Maria let the order hang in the air for a moment before her last order resounded with a quiet finality. "Dismissed."

It took significantly longer for the recruits to leave the room than it had for them to enter. Those who had entered with cocky egos were now leaving with sidelong glances at Natasha, a mixture of unwarranted disbelief, dawning respect, and resentment. Many stumbled or limped their way out, the chatter markedly lesser than it had been previously.

The door swung closed with a soft snick.

Maria tilted her head at Natasha. After a moment of a decidedly impassive stare, Natasha lifted a shoulder in a shrug. "Fine. I'll buy."

"My hero." Maria's flat delivery did nothing to detract from the quirk of her lips that might have been ascribed as a smile on anyone else. "I'll get your dinner."

Natasha's cheek twitched minutely. "You're assuming I'll let you."

"You're the one offering to buy me coffee."

Natasha turned her head, her eyes glittering in the fluorescent lights overhead. Her tongue swept over her lower lip as she grasped the door handle. "It's just coffee."


End file.
